Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Well....  A lot of time has passed.  We served our Mission in the Mexico City South Mission and returned home to Blue Springs--where we spent 2 years enjoying ourselves.  We vacationed to St Thomas (before the Hurricane), St. Kitts, Disney World (several times), Florida's beaches, the mountains of Utah (especially Park City--which we love), and places in between.  We really enjoyed being able to travel and visit places--mostly with beaches--and having the ability to relax, read, and float in an ocean or pool.  In the meantime we visited family, renewed friendships, became temple workers and dove into Family History.  But time passes and lives change.  In August of 2017 we received a telephone call from the Missionary Department that redirected our lives.  We received a call to return to Mexico, and serve as Director(s) of the Mexico City Temple Visitors Center.  And so here we are once again.  We are now living in Mexico City--at the northern end of the city instead of the southern end of the city.  We live a few steps from the one of the most beautiful Visitor's Centers in the world, and a few steps further from the beautiful Mexico City Temple.  We are blessed.  We get to live here for 2 years, and get to work with the world's best young missionary sisters.  We love getting up in the morning and walking (2 minutes) to work.  It's the world's best commute!  We love working with these wonderful sisters and the 2 "matrimonios" (Sr. Missionary couples) that are serving here.  We love having the opportunity to teach and, talk and visit with the wonderful people who enter the CV every day.  They are a highly varied group of people--from those who walk in off the streets and know nothing about Mormons, to Members who need a spiritual uplift.  We are greatly blessed and loving it!

We attended a Stake Conference last week--Estaca Aragon.  This is our Stake.  Since the Visitor's Center is open 9 hours a day, every day of the week, our plan was to attend all of the evening session, and then the Sunday morning session until 11 am--when we were going to switch with the Sr. Couple who had agreed to work in the Center that morning (all the Sr. Couples are part of the same Stake).  However, the Area Authority Seventy in charge wanted us on the stand, so we were invited up and sat there--next to him--for 2 excellent Conference Sessions!  We loved the messages and challenges given, "Be better parents", "Go to the Temple weekly", "Do your Family History", "Share the Gospel with your friends".  What was really fun was that I understood everything!  Usually the Spanish spoken from the pulpit is rapid and tough to understand--not this time.

We have been slow to make changes at the Center, but are beginning to institute some small adjustments.  Our sisters are now always working in pairs, both while greeting guests in the Center and while working in the Teaching Center--where we tcontact and teach people all over the world.  Literally--we are now teaching in Spain, the US, Portugal, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, etc.  We have also changed the way we greet people, being more open and natural, less-stilted and rote.  There are more changes on the horizon, most of them coming from Salt Lake.  We rejoice in our Sisters, our friends, our great new opportunity to live in the shadow of the beautiful Mexico City Temple and share the gospel!